New Science Teacher Program

We are currently redesigning this program for secondary science teachers that are new to the classroom, including those that began their careers during the pandemic. Please sign up for our Educator Newsletter for updates on when the application will be available, along with other resources and opportunities for educators.

Are You a New Science Teacher?

The Exploratorium’s Teacher Institute created the New Science Teacher Program to support those newest to our favorite career: teaching science. We respect new teachers as professionals and strive to respond to your needs by providing a range of science-specific supports. This program is designed to welcome new teachers into the Teacher Institute’s long-standing community of science teaching and learning.

We invite novice middle and high school science teachers in the San Francisco Bay Area to apply to this inquiry-based and content-rich professional development program. Since 1998, we have supported more than 500 novice science teachers during their first years in the classroom. The vast majority of these teachers have chosen to stay in this field, and many of them are now leaders in their schools and districts.  

The Teacher Institute's New Science Teacher Program is not associated with California Teacher Induction (formerly called Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment or BTSA), and our program is not designed to help new teachers clear their credentials.

Benefits of Our New Science Teacher Program

• Join us for Saturday workshops and our 2023 Summer Institute led by Exploratorium staff scientists and educators, and build your teaching repertoire using a Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) approach.
• Learn to plan and teach phenomena-based lessons and units for your classroom.
• Get personalized support from experienced science teachers selected for their classroom and pedagogical expertise.
• Explore ways to implement equitable and anti-racist science pedagogy and to develop as a justice-centered educator.
• Receive generous stipends and opportunities to obtain graduate level continuation units for all your participation in workshops, meetings, and the Summer Institute.

About the Teacher Institute

The New Science Teacher Program is part of the Exploratorium’s Teacher Institute. Founded in 1984 by a group of physics teachers and museum scientists, the Teacher Institute has provided thousands of secondary science teachers professional development through our Summer Institutes, Saturday workshops, conferences, and other teaching and learning programs. 

The Teacher Institute’s mission is to create and support a collaborative community of teachers, at all levels of their careers, through professional development that joyfully emphasizes the teaching and learning of science as a process for understanding the world around us. 

We believe that: 

• learning is joyful
• we learn science by doing science
• all of us are both teachers and learners
• science classrooms should be anti-racist and equitable spaces

The Teacher Institute is committed to building and supporting a diverse, inclusive, and equitable community. We are committed to prioritizing teachers of color and teachers who work with students from underserved communities. Educators of color and educators working in public schools, especially Title I schools, are encouraged to apply. 

Please email teacherinstitute@exploratorium.edu if you have any questions.